good evening from nbc's democracy plaza in the heart of the greatest city in the world. it's saturday, november the 3rd. and there's something in the air. i think it's the smell of fear, it may be the scent of victory. >> well, three more days, exactly right. three more days. >> i'm not going to -- that's it. >> no barack obama! >> if it's obama, america wins. if it's romney, comedy wins. >> senator grassley, have you hit a big deer lately? the deer didn't make it, but was it delicious? >> i love you back, and we've got more work to do. >> one more year! one more year!

>> never imagine such a thing as funny. president obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans. never imagine such a thing as funny. i'm not particular precisely of what i said but i stand by whatever i said, whatever it was. >> we are closing in on the final 48 hours of this campaign. the president is speaking live in debuk, iowa, his third of four stops today. and with him and his challenger in a frenzied sprint to win voters in those crucial battleground states. for the president that means shoring up support in the midwest states that backed him with great enthusiasm in 2008. with events in iowa, ohio, and wisconsin already today. and it was in the key

battleground ohio that the president lambasted his challenger's latest effort to seize the medal of change. >> governor romney, he is a very talented salesman. so in this campaign, he has tried as hard as he can to repackage the same policies that didn't work and offer them up as change. but, you know, here's the problem, ohio, we know what change looks like. and what he's offering about it it. >> no, indid, it ain't. vice president joe biden hit it a bit closer to the mark when he joked about romney's favorite time of year out in colorado. >> folks, i want to remind you, this is the end of daylight savings time tonight. it's mitt romney's favorite time of the year because he gets to turn the clock back. >> yes, for mitt romney it's the closing hours of his six- or

seven- or eight-year bid for the white house. it is a palpable feeling on the romney campaign plane that is end the near. indied, that was evident today in colorado springs with mr. and mrs. romney showing evident wear and tear, even getting a bit misty-eyed from the long flight. >> it has been quite a journey. it's coming to a close. we have three more days. >> it's no wonder emotions are running so high, particularly with new hoel o. polls out today showing romney down six in critical ohio. down two in his absolute must win florida. six, seven, eight years of campaigning and it's come down to this. romney still combing through the president's speeches trying to find anything that he might tether his message to, this time a line best served cold. >> yesterday the president said something you may have already heard, that i found troubling.

spoke to an audience and said voting is the best revenge. he's asking us -- he is asking his supporters to vote for revenge. i'm asking you to vote for love of country. >> oh, for the love of christmas, three days to go. let's get right to our panel. with me here at democracy plaza is professor james peterson of lee high university, nbc contribute ari and little li gill of the excel alliance. ari, the fact that romney is still desperately trying to find a zinger from the president's speech indicates there's a problem, isn't there? he's just not winning. >> it is a bad sign if you're playing these kind of word games this close to the end. you want to be making a big, bold closing argument. that's not what you're seeing from the romney campaign. you're seeing a lot of spinning. you're seeing talk about pennsylvania. you're seeing talk about these quotes and obviously what the president meant was, if you have

a feeling of revenge, if you're feeling excited, make sure to go out and do your civic duty, that's what counts. i mean, it's such a reach and so silly to try to take that and turn it into something else. but that's where they're at right now. >> so it's an act of desperation? >> i think so. i think the problem for mitt romney here is, look at ohio, right? talk about a dispute over jobs and facts and he is losing. if you go on twitter, i mean, i was doing romney ohio clips as the hash tag and the obama campaign and others were circulated today. not three, not five, but literally about 15 articles saying to mitt romney, you've got the economic plan wrong with your approach to jobs and the auto industry. and number two, equally important in a campaign, you're lying. stop lying to the people of ohio. >> dr. peterson, "the washington post" to are's point had an article entitled, mitt romney's campaign insults voters. through all the flip-flops there has been one consistency in the

campaign of republican president nominee mitt romney, a contempt for the electorate. mr. rrm seems to be betting that voters have no memories, poor arithmetic skills and general inability to look behind the curtain. we hope the results tuesday prove him wrong. >> yeah, again, if we put that revenge comment in its proper context, part of what that revenge is about is romney's violation of the public trust. when we look at these different things that have gone on in the campaign, it's very, very difficult to see mitt romney as an authentic campaigner or authentic politician. that's where you get the revenge piece. that's where the oped seems to be right on point. again, we look at a number of different issues. look at the adz playing in ohio right now. you look at that chrysler ad, you look at this desperate republican ad trying to convince black folk that the republican party are on their side. they speak down to voters and let voters understand the ways in which politics gets really, really messy at this stage of

the game. >> it's not just the campaign, it's the character of the man. that's what's being exposed to ari's point. >> yes. >> by these ads. is that not true? if you willfully lie repeatedly to the electorate, what does that say about you as an individual? >> it doesn't speak very highly of you. again, i'm all about authenticity and truth in politics. i know that seems really, really crazy in the 21st century. i think the american electorate is with me on this. at the end of the day mitt romney has played with the truth fast and furious, as we said, many times on your show. this is the result, the six-point deficit in ohio. >> despite that misleading g-pad, he hasn't made any inroads in ohio, as we've heard. we've heard about this absurd ad in spanish to latino voters where there's the president linked to fidel, hugo chavez. could it be, dooung, that mitt romney made the mistake that think that the electorate is dumb, that basically we're stupid and we wouldn't see

through the stupidity of an ad like that? >> i have to agree with ari, at this point of the game we need to focus on bigger issues and just trying to, you know, grab one very emotional and personal matter in the case of florida i don't knows and cuban-americans and try to draw a parallelism of communism with these very strong figures in an ad just goes back to picking one item that it's not the most critical at this point of the race and those few that maybe were undecided want to hear about the economy, want to hear about jobs, want to hear about -- >> immigration. >> -- hispanic business, or immigration. so in the case of this particular ad, i just -- it's unfortunate the funding went there when there were so many other opportunities to have a bigger impact and not stereotype on things like the communist message with the floridians or hispanic. >> i want to get to you because you've written a very interesting article. is obama good for black people?

and in your piece you say this, whatever else happens, obama's first term delivered an ambitious domestic agenda, with tax, spending, health care, and several rights policies that benefited black americans more than recent administrations in either party. just usually without making a sound. >> uh-huh. >> now, the narrative that i've been hearing for some time is that this president has been silent on the issues of race, and actually has not been helpful to african-americans. you say the exact opposite. >> it is a narrative that's out there and there are some very respected voices in african-american sbel chul circles who have raised that which part of what i was doing is making that argument and looking at the policy. we were speaking about this before just coming on air. if you look, for example, at the people in the lowest fifth of income in this country, barack obama's tax policies and stimulative policies have cut their taxes more than any other administration in 30 years. and if you then look at that in the context of african-american

communities for a range of reasons are more -- >> the lower fifth. >> -- moreover represented in that lower fifth than any other bracket is a boon. then on affirmative action this president sent his lawyers to the supreme court to argue in favor of it. he doesn't give big speeches on it and we can talk about what that means. my point was in taking this argument seriously let's look at the substance and the policies -- >> content of what he's done. >> exactly. he hasn't put an emphasis on it as race and he talks about it and contrast again to mitt romney who in reporting on this i looked into mitt romney's record. he was for and against affirmative action at various points in massachusetts. he actually rolled back to executive order affirmative action policies but reversed that. now despite inquiries from the "wall street journal," politico and other papers, throughout this entire campaign he would never state a position on affirmative action. >> professor peterson, the president himself when interviewed earlier this year when asked what was his single most mistake he said he had failed to -- in terms of his messaging.

is this one area that ari's article points to where in a sense he's been somewhat slow in coming forward in terms of what he's done in relation directly to black voters? >> i think that this is a very complicatedish shooi within the black community. because there is this sense -- even within the black community that there's a supposed for for the president and there really isn't. when you talk to folks, there's a wide range of opinions. there are a lot of black people to the left of this president. and so that's where he's getting that criticism from. you still get the support in that sort of context but we have to understand that it's a very, very complex issue. >> i have to say one more thing, which is very interesting. this is a very common mistake. i heard a lot of talk about the black vote and barack obama. there is no special historical relationship when you look at the data there. the relationship is between the quote, unquote, black vote and the democratic party. the numbers i'll give you are brief. barack obama improved his overall vote total for the democrats from '04 to '08 by five points, more than kerry. for all voters. among african-american voters, it was seven points. two-point difference.

so whatever we say about the african-american community, they may be committed for all series to democrats but there isn't a big voting pattern in there about this president. >> i wish more people would read your piece and get it squared. again, i don't think we should file as whole issue around race under his inability to communicate his policies. it's really up to us to try to move beyond some of the discussions we've been having around this presidency because he is black. if we do that we might see -- >> i think to some extent he's helped us with that. lily, ari, professor james peterson, stay where you are. next, chris christie and mitt romney, the bromance that was, is sadly no more. do stay with us. [ male announcer ] the 2013 smart comes with 8 airbags, a crash management system and the world's only tridion safety cell

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you can now add rupert murdoch to the list of conservatives who are preparing to blame the governor of new jersey if the president wins re-election. he tweets, somewhat ho rer tently, thanks, bloomberg, right decision. now christie, while theying o, must redeclare for romney or take blame for next four dire years. in case you can't remember this insomnia that chris christie spoke that so disgusted conservatives, here's a reminder. >> i cannot thank the president enough for his personal concern and compassion for our state and for the people of our state. >> i just want to thank him for his extraordinary leadership and partnership. >> joining me to discuss that disgusting press conference is dr. james peterson, ari melber.

dr. peterson, can you explain to me the problem here. if it was a republican president and democratic governor, they presumably would have acted in exactly the same way in the face of a storm. what's the problem? >> i don't know. i mean, should we pat them on the back for doing their jobs? i mean, that's essentially what the governor and the president are doing here. >> have you got rupert murdoch condemning him? >> i'm not sure we should be paying any attention to rupert murdoch at all. let me say this, they're doing a great job in a disastrous moment and that's why they get the platform they have. people forget that this great optics for governor christie who is a blue state. this is a time of dire need, people still don't have power right now. we should not be playing politics here. murdoch's comments are completely out of place. >> why do con zer tives, ari, insists that his kind words may swing the election. why are they doing that? >> i think they have a couple of problems. number one is they are already

looking for things to blame for a romney loss. >> that's right. >> that's happening, first of all. >> the post-mortem is occurring even though the body is not dead? >> right. i mean, you know, there's a question about how much people are doing early voting nowadays. tuesday is almost like the time for late vote. if you have your stuff together you should have voted already. that's how it is in politics. i have worked on campaigns that have lost and it does happen. long before election day they see what they can do to maintain their legacy and angle that they weren't responsible for the loss. the other piece with rupert murdoch is -- by the way, i'm glad he's on the first initial basis with the president. it's not just barack, it's just "o." it's fascinating because what we get through twitter is a bee line to powerful people's minds. and rupert murdoch may give away more of the game than he realizes. this is how he views it. i want to echo what you said. this is not a political time. there may be political ramifications but first, we still have people who need help.

rupert murdoch is sitting there saying that governor christie -- >> he lives on the upper east side of manhattan. he's not bothered about hurricane sandy. >> exactly. mayor bloomberg has done some good things here but also showed an incredible lack of understanding in trying to continue the marathon. you have some people here who have power, media power, financial power, political power, and they're looking at this and we're seeing how they view these developments. that's unfortunate what they think. >> i want to add something to that, because what i like about this i guess in the middle of the nonsense of political partisan ship is that it shows we still have it in us as americans when you see a democrat and a republican coming together from different sides of the aisle to solve an issue. we've had many issues. rrdless of who is president or not, there are issues in the economy, in the debt, and immigration, with the war, why couldn't we celebrate and see this as a sign of hope instead of trying to over dramatize it. it's really unfortunate, whether

it is through twitter of powerful people or even us in the media, to not look at this and see the positive in it and try to make it into a big on the other side. >> they need chris christie. they need his personality. they need the kind of energy he brings to the party. >> some suggestion he might have been needed as a vice presidential candidate. that really goes, martin, to the question you raised at the top of the broadcast. what is mitt romney's closing argument. they spent an enormous amount of time to impugn christie and wlorcht he was a running mate. that's what they're doing the weekend before the final election. that shows real problems. >> shows they're making some concessions here right in the run-up to the end. on the other side, they're confident about their numbers. you were on the same call earlier. they are confident about their numbers in the swing states. >> to your point, lili, is it not the case that republicans

are probably angry because their whole strategy from the moment this president was inaugurated was to oppose, obstruct, ambush, absolutely everything he did and in the last week of the campaign, here's a republican who gets on board and cooperates with the president. >> see, once again, i will look at that as an example of showing that a republican mindset can collaborate with the democratic side and work on the other side of the aisle. but again, it's not being used strategically or maybe generally as a way to portray and show that there is a new spirit and there is a true american spirit when we work together, and that's what's happening now in the time of crisis. it's a strength, it's not a weakness, what we're seeing. >> here, here. dr. james peterson, ari melber, lili, thank you. coming up, new video evidence shows why mitt romney is so afraid to answer a reporter's questions. do stay with us. ah.

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the president has just finished speaking in iowa. he's still actually shaking hands with members of the crowd. with three days to go until the election, he's campaigning like a man possessed. consider this is how campaign strategist david axelrod put it to reporters. quote, i've known him for 20 years. i've never seen him more exhilarated than he is right now. you can see in the speech he's delivering, that this is coming from his loins. well, with that, let's go live to iowa where mitt romney spoke earlier today and where nbc's kristen welker traveling with the president is with us. kristen, i'm reluctant to ask you questions about the president's loins but i guess the truth is that the president's campaign is feeling upbeat about tuesday's election. >> well, if they're using the world loins they must be feeling pretty upbeat. martin, i think this was a campaign trail first. first time we've ever heard that

word used. but theoryality is, martin, both of these come pains are trying to convince us that their candidate is going to win on tuesday. what we're doing right now is really trying to look at the numbers. what i can tell you is 27 million people have voted early so far in about 34 states, and right now those who are registered as democrats have an edge over republicans. a lot of these key battleground states, including iowa, florida, north carolina, ohio, republicans have the edge when it comes to colorado. now, democrats say this is a zine that their ground game is working. it's doing exactly what it needs to do. republicans say, look, their turnout is not as large as it was at this point in 2008. so we're going to have to wait and see, the bottom line is, until tuesday to see who is right. what i can tell you, martin, this race remains razor tight between now and election day, these two candidates will travel about 8,000 miles. hitting all of the key battleground states in between. martin? >> i should also mention that it

was you, kristen, who provoked that answer about the president's loins. >> i did. >> in a question to david axelrod. kristen welker in iowa, thanks so much. >> thank you. could we be running out top lines from mitt and ann romney? stay with us. there are just three days to go. victor! victor! i got your campbell's chunky soup. mom? who's mom? i'm the giants mascot. the giants don't have a mascot! ohhh! eat up! new jammin jerk chicken soup has tasty pieces of chicken with rice and beans. hmmm. for giant hunger! thanks mom! see ya! whoaa...oops! mom? i'm ok. grandma? hi sweetie! she operates the head. [ male announcer ] campbell's chunky soup. it fills you up right.

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-[ music resumes ] -music? ♪ have fun tonight dude. getting a car insurance quote. i'll let it go to voicemail. [ clears throat ] ♪ everybody wang chung tonight ♪ putting it on vibrate. [ cell phone vibrates ] -[ loud vibrating ] -it'll pass. [ vibrating continues ] our giant store and your little phone. that's progressive mobile. hello and welcome back to democracy plaza where we have transformed rockefeller center into a home for our special coverage of this presidential election campaign. and it has been a frenzied final sprint to election day. here are today's top lines. three is the magic number. >> stop telling me you can't wait for this election to be over. you love it. >> three more days, four more years. >> in three days, we win, obama loses. >> next to ann romney, paul ryan is the best choice i've ever made. >> it's been an extraordinary

experience. >> i want to remind you, this is the end of daylight savings time tonight. it's mitt romney's favorite time of the year because he gets to turn the clock back. >> you got to own what you say. this isn't a game. >> senator grassley, have you hit any deer lately? >> always been, if you will, a rodent and rabbit hunter. small varmints, if you will. >> was it delicious. >> governor romney is having a tough time here in ohio because he is against the auto industry. >> folks who work at the jeep plant asking, is it true, are our jobs being shipped to china? >> i'm counting on your clear eyes and full hearts to make sure that we can't lose. >> one of my more favorite moments of the campaign is throwing touchdown pass. i know how to throw spirals. >> i don't want your lies. >> america is at its best when everybody gets a fire shot. that's why i'm running for a second term of the president of the united states. >> he said voting is the best revenge. >> don't boo, vote. voting is the best revenge. >> vote for love of country. >> no obama! he should resign!

>> silence is deafening, but silence is also telling. >> do you still think that it's funny? >> president obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans? i would never imagine such a thing is funny. >> you know i tell the truth and you know i fight for working families every single day as hard as i know how. >> so that's it. that's the election. it is your choice, america, because, for me, it is a win-win. if it's obama, america wins. if it's romney, comedy wins. >> let's welcome our panel here t at democracy plaza. cyst to is my colleague and cohost of "the cycle." carol finney is former communications director for the democratic national committee. and jonathan is an msnbc contributor and "washington post" columnist. karen, we've had no less than six national tracking polls in the last 24 hours. >> okay. >> i tell you, i'm polled to death. >> i bet you are. we all are. >> but the story changes a bit when you look at the batt

battleground states. while the national polls appear to be tight, the president is up 6 percentage points according to nbc of likely voters in ohio. what does that tell us? >> i have long believed, we have talked about this, the state polls are the thing to focus on. >> you always maintained that. >> they have the best idea in terms of their sample, women, minorities, the demographics of those states. the other key things in those battleground states is if you take a look t the early vote numbers and you start to see how hard it will be for mitt romney to get to 270 because in most of those early battleground states where there's early voting he's got to win upwards of 50% of the remaining amount of votes to win the election. that sdarts to make that a lot tougher. >> right. now, crystal, the margins are much closer in places like new hampshire, colorado, virginia, you know very well, florida. the president leads in wisconsin, iowa, and nevada. let me ask you specifically about nevada. we see -- as karen was saying,

strong early voting advantages. mitt romney appears not to be making any stops there over the next three days. do you der rooifr anything from that sfl. >> i derive a lot from the early voting numbers and i think the fact that romney is not going there is quite telling. nevada is probably almost gone. and the way that the demographics have shifted in nevada this may be the last election where nevada is really in play for republicans. there's also an interesting thing that happened there on the ground. ron paul supporters sort of took over the republican party in nevada and kind of destroyed it in a way. the groundwork there is really poor for the republican party to the extent that the idaho republican party has actually been sending mail into the state. that's how bad it is. >> so why is mitt romney going to pennsylvania? >> well, i think he's looking at the fact that he can't win in ohio, he's behind there. even his people are sort of acknowledging that that's falling off the map. he has to either win in wisconsin which is also looking very much out of reach. or he has to figure out some other path of pennsylvania.

i don't think it's credible but he's trying to do at least a head fake to figure out you some other path to get there. >> jonathan, to you. you might have thought that the 30 years war in the first amendment settled the issue of politics and religion. you would be wrong. i'd like you to take a listen to this, please. >> and remember when obama forced christian organizations to provide insurance coverage that was contrary to their religious beliefs? that's the real barack obama. that's the real threat to our religious freedom. >> jonathan, i'm sorry, once again to pick up on another robo lie by romney. but i thought the president allowed for exceptions for religious organizations in relation to the provision of contraception. is that not correct? >> yes, that is correct. >> and yet the robo says the exact opposite. >> and yet you are shocked and surprised and probably horrified that the robo call for governor romney is repeating a lie that has been knocked down. is it controversial thing that's happened with -- with what the president did, sure.

but the question is settled. we've seen this with the health exemption. we've seen it with welfare. we've seen it with the jeep ad. we've seen it time and time again with governor romney's campaign. they are -- they said during the republican convention one of the seniored a viders said, we are not going to run our campaign based on fact checker or paraphrasing here. >> dictated by fact checkers. >> that proves it again. >> if i could here. he's christian. the president is christian. >> right. >> he is not declaring war on his own religion. >> good point. >> karen, to that point, and crystal is absolutely right. isn't the intention here, let's be honest, to dress this president up as closely as possible to some kind of islamic, some kind of muslim that detaches him from this country? they've been doing it from the beginning and they continue to do it. >> absolutely. >> to crystal's point, he is a committed christian. >> he is a christian. and by the way, let's just remember this issue of access to

birth control. women's issues. the ad to not mention that the issue is about women being able to choose what medicines they take. sure this is all about passing the president as some kind of other. >> something to be scared of. >> and john sununu, the inspector of john sununu said the only reason that colin powell is supporting barack obama is because he's black. the same guy who basically said he's got to learn how to be an american. very clear from the beginning what this strategy was all about. >> we know that so shoe shoe joa vat of poison. i was here a day after reporting of 9/11. unfortunately that's not the only thing we remember about mr. giuliani. take a listen to this. >> the greatest country on earth, the greatest country in the history of the world, and our growth is at 1.2%. he should resign. >> now, we're obviously concerned for the mental health

of rudy giuliani, but we also know that he loves opera and he appeared to be close to some kind of physical explosion. >> i mean, in all seriousness, though, i think that is a perfect example of why the romney team is going to lose, because the republicans are not living in the world of reality. you know, the base so hates the president with such a visceral, gutteral hatred they can't understand that most of the country likes this president, wants him to succeed. thinks he's a good guy who is trying hard. and so you can't think that -- you can't have that hatred and come up with a compelling message that appealing to centrist voters who you need to win over to your side. >> we've seen in ohio where there's been a little bit of a backlash with the jeep ads that jonathan was mentioning because they're such blatant lies that the head of gm and chrysler had to come out. there's a population growing in america saying, wow, you might want to chill that hate down a little bit. it's a little daunting. you can almost see voters

saying, did you know you just said that out loud? the rest of us heard you say that? >> the problem is, karen, they wouldn't be doing it if they didn't think they were appealing to somebody. i mean, you don't spend a million dollars on advertising unless you think you're going to get some return. >> but remember from the very beginning this has been a base election. president obama needs his base to come out if he's going to win. mitt romney needs his base to come out if he's going to win. and so the fact that he -- that they are still going this route spells trouble for governor romney. >> there aren't enough white men in this country to elect a president. i'm sorry, fellas. it's the truth. and the barack obama electorate is blacker and browner and it's women and it's far more diverse, like the country actually is. >> even republican senator lindsey graham said something to the effect of we're not turning out enough angry old white guys. the romney campaign made the bet that they had enough of those guys on their side if they just did stuff like what rudy

giuliani did, they would win. they were wrong. crystal ball, karen finney, jonathan, stay with us. a programming note, tomorrow, vice president joe biden sits down with chris matthews for a special preelection edition of "hard ball" tomorrow night at 7:00. next, it's been three weeks since mitt took a question from a reporter. when we come back, you will see why. stay with us. >> refusing to answer details about your policies until after the election, that's definitely not change. we've heard that from politicians before. or that printing in color had to cost a fortune. nobody said an all-in-one had to be bulky. or that you had to print from your desk. at least, nobody said it to us. introducing the business smart inkjet all-in-one series from brother.

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and to heal the planet. >> trying to bite my lip just like mitt romney. it was a stupid joke when he told it at the republican convention in tampa. but only the dregs of mitt romney's base could find funny. but now after a week where we saw more than our fair share of rising sea levels, it's pure political poison. and even mr. romney is embarrassed. take a listen to this. >> something to rise of funny? >> i would never imagine such a thing as funny. how are you? >> is climate change still a joke to you? >> as a matter of fact, i know you're filming, if you would like to see my view on global warming, i wrote a book and there's a chapter on global warming and you will see what i think we need to do to deal with it. >> karen, it was october 10th, over three weeks ago that mr. romney took a reporter's question. i think we now see why that is. >> absolutely. he doesn't -- here's the thing. he doesn't care about telling

the truth anyway so he might as well go ahead and take the question. >> that's true. >> either way, it's not like we're getting the truth. >> extraordinary because he said he didn't say it was a laughing matter but he just made a joke of it. >> how many times has he actually said -- you know, himself, basically contradict what's in his book. >> we have his book, karen. >> ah. >> here it is. mr. romney suggest we take a look. in 2010 mr. romney wrote, i believe that climate change is occurring. i also believe that human activity is a contributing factor. then, in 2011, mr. romney was running in a republican presidential primary and he changed his answer to, we don't know what's causing climate change on this planet. we also checked his book, what's your thoughts? >> well, look, this fits in what mitt romney has done throughout this campaign. it's clip that you love showing, top line, when he says, i stand by whatever it is -- what i said, whatever it is, whatever i said when i said it. that's exactly what we're seeing here.

you know, mitt romney, he answered the question as best he could. he doesn't really want to talk to the person. remember, he said, i know you're filming, just go check out my book, hey, how are you doing. >> we did check out the book. great. rub badge. crystal, if you had any doubts that hurricane sandy changed the race in the last week, listen to carl rove. this is what he tells the "washington post." if you hadn't had the storm, there would have been more of a chance for the romney campaign to talk about the deficit, the debt, the economy. when you have attention drawn away to somewhere else, to something else, it is not to romney's advantage. is that really true given all the statistics have been going improving for the president in relation to the economy? >> well, that is true. i mean, i think rove is already trying to find a reason why romney is going to lose. even karl rove is now having to admit that there were some problems this week that the campaign is not looking good. >> topsy on the body before the body is dead. >> exactly.

rather than admitting that maybe the conservative policy prescriptions did not appeal to the american public and bashing the president doesn't appeal to the american public he has to instead go down this path. flip-flopping, when he was a governor of massachusetts, he was a strong proponent of the regional greenhouse gas emission, right up to the point that he decided and declared that he was not going to run for office again, in effect, announcing his run for the president of the united states on that very day he made that announcement and that he was pulling out of the regional greenhouse gas initiative. >> totally unrelated. >> totally politically calculated. >> karen, what were you going to say about the flip flog in relation to the climate change issue? >> i was going to -- i wasn't going to say in relation to the flip-flop of the climate change issue. i was going to say in general of mitt romney. you heard me say this before, we're back where we started. the dishonesty, i won't show you my tax records, i won't do this,

i won't do that. but also, what karl rove is doing there, let's be very, very clear because we're going to hear a lot of it for the next three days, that is starting to deledge mize the second term for barack obama. if chris christie hadn't done this, if sandy hadn't happened -- >> if we hadn't cheated the unemployment numbers, if the hurricane hadn't happened, bureau of labor statistics. >> polls and media. the liberal media. the mainstream media. >> that's right. >> is that what's going to happen over the next few days, i don't know on thjonathan, in yo experience of covering presidential elections, does this feel premature that they're writing the epitaph or does that tell you what is going to happen? >> it tells you that they are cya'ing right now before the election. they're not going to let themselves and we're all very bullish about the president's prospects on stoous. but until the people actually vote we won't know. what they're doing is very -- if

mitt romney does indeed lose everyone is on record as saying, well, if it's this or it was that. it was sandy. >> yeah, of course. except never admitting that he was actually a horrendous candidate. >> heard it. terrible. >> crystal ball, karen finney, jonathan capehart. stay with us, much more from democracy plaza in just a moment. ♪ these are... [ male announcer ] marie callender's puts everything you've grown to love about sunday dinner into each of her pot pies. tender white meat chicken and vegetables in a crust made from scratch. marie callender's. it's time to savor. humans -- even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why, at liberty mutual insurance,

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. that's the live shot here at rockefeller center where the rink has been transformed into a battleground in the final hours of this grueling campaign. mitt romney is racing across as many states as he possibly can offering his closing argument that he's the only man in america who can possibly work

across the aisle in the congress, not the president. >> he will not be able to work with congress. he is not for the last four years, he's ignored them, he's attacked them. i will meet regularly with democrat leaders, republican leaders, i'll find good people in both parties who care more about the interest of the people than they do about politics. it can happen. it's got to happen. >> congressman john yarmouth\is the democrat from kentucky. >> he may not be aware from the moment the president was gnawing rated republicans set out a strategy to obstruct, to prevent, to ambush absolutely anything he tried to achieve. is this all the president's fault? >> i don't think he's been paying much attention because it's been clear that republicans as you said have set out from day one, mitch mccontinental and

the republican meeting the night of the inauguration saying we can't give the president any ways at all. we met without any staff or media in the ways and means committee and is there any health care law that you all can vote for and they said flat out, no. it's been clear what's going on. the president's problem, if god forbid mitt romney were elected, is with the republicans, it's not with the democrats. >> mr. romney, i guess, to create the impression that he'll start vigorously, says that he'll accomplish a remarkable number of things from day one if he wins the election. listen. >> day one of my administration i will label china a currency manipulator. >> day one we'll say yes to keystone pipeline. on day one i'll ensure that organizations like planned partner hood get no more

support. i'll get rid of obama care on day one. >> with just three days to go, given he will start to repeal the president's health care and start a trade war with china, what kind of mood will democrats be when they meet with mr. romney on day two? >> i guess he's not going to go to the parade or inaugural balls if he's going to do all that on day one. this is all absolute bluster. we know he's likely to change his mind on day two and day three so i don't think the american people should pay much attention to what he says he's going to do on day one. >> some people would say it's hour to hour rather than day to day. mitt romney as we know is probably the finest living revisionist in america, when he talks about his experience in massachusetts, he fails to acknowledge that the reason he won support from democrats is because health care and education were priorities for those democrats. that's why they worked with him.

it wasn't down to some magical elixir that he brewed, was it? >> remember even when he was asked about gun control laws, he said he supported that because there was general agreement on it. it wasn't because he exerted any kind of leadership ability. his entire history, clearly when he faced a legislature that was 85% democrat there wasn't much he was able to do unless democrats wanted to go there. this is a very very different environment he would find himself in in washington. and again his problem is that eric cantor and a lot of republicans aren't willing to compromise, aren't willing to reach out to anybody. his problem is going to be with his own party. democrats have been willing all along to sit down and talk about some common approaches to some serious problems and republicans. >> indeed just three days to go. thank you sir. >> thank you, martin. >> and thanks so much for

watching our special broadcast tonight. "the ed show" is next. [ male announcer ] wouldn't it be cool if you could combine the capability of a pathfinder with the comfort of a sedan and create a next-gen s.u.v. with best-in-class fuel economy of 26 miles per gallon, highway, and best-in-class passenger roominess? yeah, that would be cool. introducing the all-new nissan pathfinder. it's our most innovative pathfinder ever. nissan. innovation that excites. ♪